Middlesex County Council
From the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesex_County_Council Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965. The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the county to constitute the County of London. By the 1930s most of the county had become urbanised, effectively forming part of the London conurbation, and in 1965 the county council was abolished on the creation of the Greater London Council. Elections and political control The county council consisted of elected councillors and co-opted county aldermen. The entire body of county councillors was elected every three years. Aldermen were additional members, there being a ratio of one alderman to three councillors. Aldermen had a six-year term of office, and one half of their number were elected by the councillors immediately after the triennial elections. The first elections were held in January 1889. The first meeting of the "provisional" county council was held on 14 February 1889 at Westminster Town Hall. Although the council did not use political labels, among the aldermen elected were members of the parliamentary Conservative Party. From 1919 the non-political composition of the council was challenged by the election of members of the Labour Party. The 1922 and 1925 elections were, for the most part, not run on party lines. In 1928 the majority of the council were described as "Moderate", with Labour forming an opposition. Labour continued to make advances at the 1931 election, and this led to the formation of a Middlesex Municipal Association "representative of all anti-Socialist members". The association was supported by the various Conservative Party organisations of the county although it was not officially affiliated to the party, and controlled the council until 1946. In 1946 Labour took control of the county council for the first time. Following this, the Conservative Party contested elections to the county council, winning control in 1949 and holding it at the 1952 and 1955 elections. In 1958 Labour regained control. At the elections held in 1961 the Conservatives were returned to power. These were to be the final elections to the county council: under the London Government Act 1963 the elections due in 1964 were cancelled, with the elections to the shadow Greater London Council being held instead. Chairmen of the Middlesex County Council The chairman of the county council chaired its meetings and also represented it in a ceremonial manner, in a similar fashion to the mayor of a borough. Twenty-nine people served as chairmen over the council's existence. From the Statement of the Chairman of the County Council (of Middlesex) of Some of the Principal Operations of the County Council… for the Three Years to the end of February 1913 Streams wholly or partly handled by the Council *Ash River *Bigley Ditch *Brent River *Colney River *Crane River *Deans Brook *Dollis Brook *Edgware Brook *Frays River *Hermitage Ditch *Hounsden Ditch or Gutter *Kenton Brook *Moselle Brook *Pinn River *Pymmes Brook *Sadler's Mill Stream *Salmons Brook *Silk Stream *Staines Boundary Ditch *Strawberry Vale Brook *Stonebridge Brook *Turkey Street Brookge *Wembley Brook *Whitton Brook *Wyrardisbury River *Yeadding Brook (sic) References Category:Local government